This invention concerns the field of laundry detergents and relates to compositions comprising a conditioning surfactant system.
Among laundry detergents available on the market are compositions which not only clean the laundry but give it a soft hand. Such compositions, sometimes known as xe2x80x9csoft detergentsxe2x80x9d, include conditioners which are generally cationic surfactants of the type of the tetraalkylammonium compounds, usually together with phyllosilicates. Since laundry detergents are customarily based on anionic surfactants, the presence of cationic surfactants tends to cause undesirable salt formation, which leads to the deactivation of a portion of the detersive components and also to deposits on the fibers. Consequently, manufacturers of soft detergents need to preserve a balance and include only as much cationic surfactant in the formulation as is possible without signficant salt formation. This amount is generally below 0.5% by weight. Given such low use concentrations, it is of course immediately clear why soft detergents have hitherto not been very successful in the marketplace and have hitherto been unable to displace liquid fabric conditioners added in the post-rinse cycle, i.e., after conclusion of the actual wash.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide novel laundry detergent compositions, preferably in the form of powders, granules, extrudates or agglomerates, where the problem of salt formation between anionic and cationic surfactants has been solved, so that larger amounts of cationic surfactants may be used for the same high detergency and hence a better fiber hand finish may be achieved.